Matches to Make after WEC 50

Aug 19, 2010

Joseph Benavidez file photo: Sherdog.com

The favorite sport of Norman Mailer’s ghost brought serious game in
the form of WEC
50 on Wednesday at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. As
usual, the post-fight afterglow calls for some beard-tastic
matchmaking, and I’m the one to keep it extra grizzled.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m sick and tired of the
WEC not employing a flyweight division, especially when a match
between Benavidez and Johnson would be the perfect debut for this
weight class. There are plenty of great flyweights out there for
the taking, but using a couple of homegrown fighters to get the
division off the ground seems like an easy sell.

In Benavidez’s two bouts with Dominick
Cruz and in Johnson’s match with Brad
Pickett, their talent was every bit as obvious as the massive
size disparity with which they deal as bantamweights. Giving them
the opportunity to cut an extra 10 pounds and show what they can do
against someone their own size would serve up a guaranteed “Fight
of the Night” candidate.

As long as Johnson beats Clint
Godfrey -- and he should -- this looks like the right move for
the WEC at a time when its lightweight division is clearly running
out of steam. More importantly, a long-ignored weight class would
finally overcome the biggest obstacle in its long, winding road to
mainstream MMA fans: acceptance by a Zuffa promotion.

Just about anyone who comes out of Urijah
Faber’s Team Alpha Male camp will have a ton of hype attached
to his name, and Mendes is certainly no different. An elite NCAA
wrestler who has translated those skills to MMA in short order, all
he needs to show now is that he can create offense from the top
control he so easily gains.

Vazquez is just the guy to put him in there against. If Mendes
cannot get any real offense going, “Showtime” will outclass him on
the ground. Long known for his brilliant grappling skills, Vazquez
has developed solid striking chops to match and, in all honesty,
should be rocking a 4-0 record in the WEC, rather than the mediocre
2-2 mark incompetent judges handed him.

Vazquez deserves a high-profile main card slot as much as anyone
and, unlike Cub Swanson,
has the technical Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills to keep Mendes from
pulling off a Mark Coleman
special. Mendes can no longer be coddled, and he needs to prove
that wrestling is not the only skill he brings to the table.

Contrived as Pickett’s “One Punch” gimmick may be, it’s impossible
not to appreciate the way he fights. All three of his WEC bouts
have been a pleasure to watch, and a tilt with Page would make “The
Expendables” look like a “Care Bears” spinoff.

Manliness would be on the agenda for every second of this duel, as
both fighters’ willingness to unload haymakers and get into
scrambles worthy of The Flash makes for a tantalizing style clash.
Considering Page and Pickett’s only WEC losses have come to
bantamweight elites Brian
Bowles and Scott
Jorgensen, respectively, investing in building a contender out
of one of them seems like a fine idea.

Simply put, when Page can get through a training camp without
sustaining some sort of injury, he’s one of the only bantamweights
around who’s willing to fight at the sadomasochistic pace for which
Pickett has become known. Besides, anytime one can match up a guy
nicknamed “The Angel of Death” against someone with the genes of a
bare-knuckle boxer, one has to do it.

Cheap Shots & Quick Thoughts

Dominick
Cruz vs. Scott
Jorgensen: An absolute no-brainer for the WEC, regardless of
Urijah
Faber’s popularity. Imagine an even more competitive version of
Cruz’s rematch with Benavidez, and that’s the kind of awesome
potential this fight holds.

Benson
Henderson vs. Anthony
Pettis: The WEC needs to break up the lightweight title trinity
of Henderson, Donald
Cerrone and Jamie Varner
before the division turns into a redundant wreck. The prodigiously
gifted Pettis possesses charisma, style and skill to spare and
would bring something new to a division desperate for new
faces.

Bart
Palaszewski vs. Maciej
Jewtuszko: Rocking Anthony
Njokuani’s universe with a spinning back elbow should be plenty
to get Jewtuszko a main card return bout in the WEC. Palaszewski
will stand in the pocket with him, which means violence, sweet,
sweet violence.